January 10, 2010

It's really hard to miss that the Irish have a new blasphemy law that took effect at the start of the year. However, it's relatively easy to miss that there was a reason, even a moderately good reason, aside from religious prejudice that the law was made. Thers, at Whiskey Fire, isn't going to let us do that.

I am rarely happy with calling laws like this "backwards" or "medieval," because it's rarely a helpful way of understanding exactly why stuff like this gets proposed, or what the stakes are in any specific dispute. And I insist: It is always the specific dispute that matters, not how it fits into preconceived ideological frameworks, even ones I'm sympathetic to.

Go read for an interesting lesson in Irish history and modern sausage making.

I've had this open in a tab for a bit, but I believe the credit for pointing me to it goes to Bora.